


Find

by Enchantable



Series: Search and Recover [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Angst, Drift Bond, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 19:53:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enchantable/pseuds/Enchantable
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako realizes there is nothing she will not to for Raleigh</p>
            </blockquote>





	Find

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: YOU MUST DO A FOLLOW UP PLEASE!!!! Reunion scene in the hospital!!

The hiss of life support makes Mako’s stomach turn. 

Machines haven’t made her nauseous in years. Especially not ones that are doing good for people. But as she watches the black pump compress she feels like she’s going to be sick. The machine pushes air through the tubes that snake through Raleigh’s mouth and nose, pressing air into his lungs. There are more tubes, all performing functions he can’t. He’s naked, the scars on his pelvis hidden by the iodine they swiped on his skin before cutting him open. 

They aren’t ready to move him to a room yet. 

Mako knows she can see him only because the medics view the bond of pilots as something sacred. It’s been over eight hours since she they were brought in, enough time for her to pass out, wake up and do her best Stacker Pentecost impression for them to let her out of her room to see him. Standing in too big scrubs, Mako looks at the vicious, angry burn that spans his chest thanks to her and wonders if its possible to feel smaller. 

Finally a nurse comes in and Mako watches as she begins to wipe down his skin. When her fingers pause on the scars of his shoulder Mako wants to beat the glass and scream that no-one is allowed to touch those. Instead she averts her eyes for a moment. A moment longer than she intends because when she looks up the nurse is folding a hospital gown over him. Mako gets to her feet and stumbles down the steps. Herc is waiting for her at the bottom. 

"I have to go with him," she says and her voice is dull and desperate at the same time. 

"Let them settle him," Herc says gruffly, "I’ll fill you in."

Mako looks towards the doors. Herc mutters something but he gets it. His hand stays on her arm as they walk after the bed. He stops outside the room, letting Mako stand near the small window as he speaks. Words like malfunction and neural damage swim above her as she watches them settle his bed against the wall. 

"He didn’t want me to die in there," she says finally.

"No," Herc says after a moment. 

"I would have," she says looking at the older pilot, her control fracturing, "we’re supposed to—"

Hercs hands land on her shoulders and the physical contact freezes her. 

"No-one else is dying today," he growls and the passion in his voice lets Mako believe him. 

She doesn’t ask about tomorrow.

Tomorrow finds her waking up on the cot outside Raleigh’s room. They won’t let her sleep in the same room, they still aren’t sure they won’t have to cut him open again. But the only family he has is a sister who doesn’t speak to him so they get rid of the chairs outside his room and put a cot there for her. She’s sore when she wakes but Raleigh’s alive and she doesn’t care about how she feels anyway. 

five days later the tension starts draining out of the medics and Mako wants to kill them all. Raleigh’s body is healing but he isn’t waking up. Mako knows she isn’t patient but when the doctors say things like he needs time or the nurses assure her this is normal she wants to kill them. Piloting a Jaeger solo isn’t normal, doing it with failing systems and getting implied while trying to escape isn’t normal. It isn’t and they should be terrified like she is. 

He goes a week without flatlining and Mako is forced to shower and spend a night in her room. When she comes back they’ve moved him to another one, one where she can sit for as long as she would liKe. She wants to tell them she doesn’t want to sit with him, she wants to spar and eat and drift with him. She doesn’t want to sit there and watch him be so small and still. But the words clog in her throat and she just nods before making herself comfortable in the big chair. 

Another three days and he starts having other visitors. Herc and Tendo, even Herman comes. On day five Newt appears, takes one look at him and runs out of the room. Mako slips her hands into Raleigh’s and tries not to wince at the feeling of his muscles twitching as they atrophy. She doesn’t say anything, if she opens her mouth she thinks she’ll scream and she isn’t sure she’ll ever stop. 

She does gasp when Newt comes back. 

Mostly because he’s brought what appears to be the mafia with him. They’re dressed so gaudily and armed so heavily that she has no idea how they got into the shatterdome. Especially not with the huge the three of them are wheeling. Until the biggest, most ostentatious one comes forward. She recognizes him instantly, even though they’ve only met a handful of times. 

"This him?" He barks and Newt ducks forward.

"Yeah," he says, "he piloted alone but he’s done that before and so has Stacker so I don’t know why this is different but—"

"Do you ever shut up?" The bigger man demands looking at Newt.

Mako doesn’t realize she’s on her feet until she’s heading for the door. Alone. Raleigh was alone and if they’re right then this is all her fault. Her throat tightens as she pushes herself forward, she has to get out before she causes more trouble for him.

"Where the fuck is she going?!" Hannibal booms and she freezes before Newt runs forward. 

"Okay, so, neural overload happens when one pilot takes control and does a two person job," he says. Mako glares at him because she knows that already, "well—"

"God damn," Hannibal growls, "His mind thinks it’s still holding the whole load," he cuts in, punching in a code and pulling open the top of the box to reveal a PONS system, "you take some of that away and he might wake up."

The headpiece is awkward but Mako can’t get it on fast enough.

The doctors try to stop them but Hannibal’s gang pulls out their weapons and locks the door. Mako looks over at Raleigh, fully aware this will probably kill them both. Immediately she decides she doesn’t care. Either they both live or they both die, but anything is better than watching him waste away. She closes her eyes as the clamps press into her skin and then the pull happens and she’s sucked away. 

The weight of him crashes onto her. His mind a blur of confusion and pain. The memories that bombard her are horrific. The agony of the Jaeger dying twice over, the feeling of metal burning into your skin, the screaming and the pulling and the 

No, Yancy no dont die, come back we’re supposed to go together.

no.

Mako, mako needs to get out. I can’t kill someone else, I can’t outlive someone else I’m sorry. I’m not strong enough I’m sorry I love you I’m—

I’m sorry. 

She forces herself to be still in the chaos that rages around her. She focuses on her heartbeat, making it steady and letting it fill her ears like a drum. Like a hammer. She focuses on the sparks as her father pounds the metal, as he folds the steel. She focuses on the way Stacker drilled her, meeting her own hysteria and pain with his unwavering spirit. 

The memory shifts and she’s outside Stacker’s office, but the hand that’s grabbing him isn’t her own. The anger she feels at having her chance snatched away, at someone else suffering for a mutual mistake isn’t her own. But the way Stacker looks at whoever she is, well, that is all too familiar. 

a fixed point.

i am a fixed point. 

Hold onto me. 

Mako grabs that for all she’s worth, she grounds herself to it and forces the chaotic mind beating against hers to do the same. It’s hard, like forcing a hurricane into a bottle. bit by bit it works though, the hurricane slowly folding in on itself until the vortex is gone. Until Stacker is gone and she finds herself facing Raleigh on the mats in the Kwoon. 

His eyes are closed and his head is bowed as he stands there but Mako knows he is aware. His grip on the sword is tight. She can feel the wraps of the identical one she holds pressed into her skin. When he moves it is without warning, with all the fury and grace she’s come to expect from him. Their swords meet with a ringing sound before disengaging and meeting again. 

"You aren’t supposed to be here!" Raleigh shouts and his fury surprises her. 

"Where else would I be?!" She shouts back, even though words are not necessary. 

"I didnt save you so you could kill yourself trying to save me!" he bellows and his sword almost catches the inside of her wrist, "Get out of here!"

"Not without you!" She cries as the floor shakes violently. He looks at her sharply and she levels the sword, "I am not leaving here without you," she tells him and rushes at him. 

Their blades meet again as the lights flicker but she doesn’t care. They trade blows across the floor. When one of them stumbles the other a catches their blow. They meet hard and fast, the frustration building. Then something clicks and the blows take on a life of their own. Slowly the room begins to steady as they move across the mats, catching each other’s strikes. But now there’s almost a comfort when their blades meet, know that yours won’t whistle through empty air. 

Their swords meet and they hold still, their eyes locked. Mako thinks she shouts for them to get out of the drift, but Raleigh’s mouth forms the words. 

She gasps as her eyes fly open. She’s sitting in the chair and she can feel blood on her face but that doesn’t matter because Raleigh is choking on the tube down his throat. Her hands scramble onto the bed and grab his as the doctors run in. They’re shocked until Mako shouts at them and they move, calming Raleigh down enough to get the tube out of his throat and the mask on his face. 

He’s gasping unsteadily but his fingers remain in a death grip on hers. Mako’s pretty sure they’re going to break each other’s hand but she doesn’t care. He’s alive. He’s alive and he’s awake and she feels like she’s alright for the first time since she blew the top of her pod. He looks at her but she shakes her head, knowing his throat is too sore to speak. 

Herc comes in and gives them a reprimand which would be more believable if he hadn’t brought them the flavored ices they sell on the street and wasn’t grinning like an idiot. She sees the relief on Raleigh’s face as the ice slides down his throat and the knowledge he can react to things again almost makes her cry. 

Later, when more tubes have been removed he shifts over on the bed and she climbs in next to him. His right arm is a throbbing pain from that one getting ripped off too, but he still puts it around her shoulders. She leans against him, listening to his steady heart and marveling at the fact that his lungs are working on their own. 

"Thank you," he whispers hoarsely to her. 

She looks up at him, her eyes moving from his blue one to the one still dotted ruby. his other hand comes and gently cups her cheek, his thumb brushing the skin under her eye which she knows is as red as his. She turns her face into his hand, overwhelmed by the emotion such a simple gesture brings. 

But it’s nothing compared to the emotion she feels when he ducks his head and gently presses his mouth to hers. 

The sweetness of the syrup they use to flavor the ice cuts through her tongue as she parts her lips and deepens the kiss. His hand slides from her cheek to the back of her neck but her head is moving with his, finding the best angles. It’s like drifting except this isn’t someone else’s memory and the sensations are overwhelming. When he finally pulls back they rest their foreheads against each other, like they did the day they saved the world and for the first time Mako smiles. 

"I guess your timing isn’t so terrible after all."


End file.
